The first line of this poem is so evocative. I had a wonderful literature professor in college who had us study Yeats and it was one of my favorite classes ever. The gyre symbolizes time as it widens, with the circular pattern of history repeating itself but also somehow simultaneously unraveling. Thank you Greg, for this expressive reading of “The Second Coming.”
Like Erin O'Brien, I studied this poem in college within the context of the era, an era of deep and flowing change. A Copernican Shift was occurring: imperialism was dancing into the end of a century while the shackled were beginning to shake free; art was shifting into awareness of abstract truth underpinning perception; and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was being born, which would free the scientific world from the absolutism of religion's talons. Like a mobile that has lost one its parts, the world tipped and spun, seeking a new equilibrium. The Copernican Shift changed everything and nothing. I believe we are inside another shift.
"The falconers need to raise their voices." This is what is so frustrating to me - the silence. I don't think even faith will help, because their silence is also accompanied by a lack of action.
For the DoJ to expect reasonable people to have blind faith that the wheels of justice are turning with little evidence of it can't last much longer. Reasonable people don't rely on faith. We rely on hope born of evidence, relayed to us in a variety of frequent, reliable updates that come directly from Garland and Wray through the fourth estate. We need House and Senate leaders to punish the seditious MOCs who flagrantly defy their Code of Ethics and their oaths of office, we need indictments to come down on Trump. We need evidence that the billionaire donors who planned and funded the attempted coup, like Koch/DeVos/Mercer, are going to be held accountable.
Robert Parker wrote a Spenser novel entitled "The Widening Gyre" and, just before it, one called "Ceremony," which I'm sure is referring to "ceremony of innocence," since the book is about a teenager in the kind of trouble even an adult could not handle. I always liked his books, which I read like candy when in school in the 1980's, because they brought me back to the real world after days of reading Shakespeare and Wordsworth and James and yes, Yeats.
I think we err when we put all of our eggs in the nests of the falconers. They may mean well and have good intentions and may indeed be honorable. But they don't seem to see that the beast is before them. My conviction has strengthened to the point that I think we must become the falconers. I think about that. What that would mean. I read Yeats' "Easter, 1916" when thinking about that: "A terrible beauty is born."
The first line of this poem is so evocative. I had a wonderful literature professor in college who had us study Yeats and it was one of my favorite classes ever. The gyre symbolizes time as it widens, with the circular pattern of history repeating itself but also somehow simultaneously unraveling. Thank you Greg, for this expressive reading of “The Second Coming.”
You are expressing both my dread and my hope that all is not lost.
i think of this poem often, it seems to mirror our crisis. Thanks, Greg
Like Erin O'Brien, I studied this poem in college within the context of the era, an era of deep and flowing change. A Copernican Shift was occurring: imperialism was dancing into the end of a century while the shackled were beginning to shake free; art was shifting into awareness of abstract truth underpinning perception; and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was being born, which would free the scientific world from the absolutism of religion's talons. Like a mobile that has lost one its parts, the world tipped and spun, seeking a new equilibrium. The Copernican Shift changed everything and nothing. I believe we are inside another shift.
"The falconers need to raise their voices." This is what is so frustrating to me - the silence. I don't think even faith will help, because their silence is also accompanied by a lack of action.
Who is being silent?
For the DoJ to expect reasonable people to have blind faith that the wheels of justice are turning with little evidence of it can't last much longer. Reasonable people don't rely on faith. We rely on hope born of evidence, relayed to us in a variety of frequent, reliable updates that come directly from Garland and Wray through the fourth estate. We need House and Senate leaders to punish the seditious MOCs who flagrantly defy their Code of Ethics and their oaths of office, we need indictments to come down on Trump. We need evidence that the billionaire donors who planned and funded the attempted coup, like Koch/DeVos/Mercer, are going to be held accountable.
"The falconers need to raise their voices." And The "Fox" needs to die.
Anton Szandor LaVey made a living as a Satanist.
He published a newsletter titled Slouching Toward Gomorrah, in which he offered alternate viewpoints different from common understanding.
And now he's dead, so he can't take it back, and that means it's so.
Robert Parker wrote a Spenser novel entitled "The Widening Gyre" and, just before it, one called "Ceremony," which I'm sure is referring to "ceremony of innocence," since the book is about a teenager in the kind of trouble even an adult could not handle. I always liked his books, which I read like candy when in school in the 1980's, because they brought me back to the real world after days of reading Shakespeare and Wordsworth and James and yes, Yeats.
I think we err when we put all of our eggs in the nests of the falconers. They may mean well and have good intentions and may indeed be honorable. But they don't seem to see that the beast is before them. My conviction has strengthened to the point that I think we must become the falconers. I think about that. What that would mean. I read Yeats' "Easter, 1916" when thinking about that: "A terrible beauty is born."
Thanks, as always, Greg.